highly touted candidate in arizona's eighth district, a state senator, lost to the tea party candidate, a far right candidate who believes in privatizing social security and takes a very hard line right view. you are seeing that same thing play out in other parts of the country. in other instances you are seeing republican candidates who are simply retreading, people like steve pierce, people who have had their hands on the driving wheel with the bush administration. it will be difficult for them to make the claim that they represent a new turning of the page. third, campaigns matter. these will be close elections. many will be decided at the

margins. we have been preparing for what we knew would be tough midterms from the very beginng. when people were still basking in the glow of the victory of president obama, democrats expanding majorities in the house, we were getting to work anning for what would clearly be choppy political waters, given the fact that in the last two cycles democrats have picked up 55 seats in all the swing districts in the country. we have a front line program designed to help our members in the toughest tricks in terms of the resources for their campaigns. on the official site, these members have been more active than any classes in history, 2006 and 2010, in passing legislation that directly benefit their communities. the focus not only on front-line members, but also on the senior members, members who in 1994 got caught by this prize, making

sure they took nothing for granted. we have a strong financial advantage, and we have put in place expensive field operations that are not designed simply as a last minute get out the vote, but have been placed around the country for months, knocking on doors, talking to voters, in the swing districts about these issues. we also made it -- make a clear decision early on to stay on offense wherever possible. clearly, after picking up 55 seats over the last two elections, we he had to work hard in defending those members. wherever possible, we have stayed in offense, and there are a good number of what we call red-to-blue candidate out there competing for republican seats, and we are confident that we will pick up a gd number of

those. let me end by saying that just as republicans are currently prematurely popping the champagne bottles about november 2, they did the same thing in three special elections we have seen over the past two years. new york 20, new york 23, and pennsylvania 12. some of the same themes are playing out today. in new york 23, we saw that local choice of the republican party was run out by a tea party candidate. he had been a moderate republican candidate, chosen by a lal republican party. you had sarah palin and the tea party movemt come in and essentially drive her out of the race. this is a district that had

been held by the republicans since the civil war. in the case of pennsylvania 12, after the polls closed, republicans were telling folks that their candidate was going to win. what happened was the democratic candidate focused on the issues, economy, on the fact that his opponents had supported and benefited from some of these special tax breaks rewarded corporations to ship jobs overseas and focused on bread and butter issues, combined with a great field campaign operation that out the vote. where republicans did not think democrats would come outhe vote, they did in big numbers in that campaign. for the three reasons we've talked about today, the fact that this election prevent -- presents a clear choice moving forward and returning to the same policies that got us into this mess to begin with, the fact that you have republican candidate out of the mainstream in what are centrist,

mainstream, swing districts, and the fact that we have been preparing from day one for what we knew would be very tough campaign season, i am confident that the democratsill retain control of the house, which will allow us to continue to move this country forward rather than go back. thank you for your attention today. i hope that we will have an opportunity between now and the election to have a traditional exchange between both of the congressional campaign committee leaders, and with that i will be delighted to try to answer any questions you have. >> i will ask the first question, and then we will turn over. was not give the right, there are enough seats in play, but you are thinking you will win this?

>> this is a political town, and people need to understand when the phrase things certain way they get interpreted. that comment was interpreted to mean we have tough contested elections, buto suggest that the democrats would actually lose the house, even though that is not exactly what he said. that me say this. we have said from the beginni that these are going to be tough election this is primarily because the democrats picked up 55 seats. in addition to the fact, you have a historical patte, the president's party traditionally loses seats in off-year elections. for the reason i talked about it, the democrats will maintain control of the house mostly because people do not want to go back to what they know is a

failed economic agenda. the amount we will go to questions now. >> thank you. you spoke abt the advantages you have. you did not mention what your real deficit is, which is talk shows. unfortunately, you guys are not representative or represented in such an unfashionable way as to be statistically insignificant. talk to us about your concerns in this area. >> you raise a good point, beuse despite the huge proliferation in sources of information that we see today, the fact is that many people tend to go to just certain sources of information. there is no doubt that you have a lot of very right-wing political talk radio and some very other stations that tend to

focus on the republican position on issues, and that is no doubt a challenge, and it is one that we jt ask americans to take into account as they listen to the information they are getting. it is the same issue we have with some of these third-party expenditures we are seeing around the country, which i hope to have a chance to talk about all was well. that there is a power to the voices. i would just ask the american people to listen where they are coming from. there is some. , a time ago, where someone said that he hoped the president would fail. there were a number of republicans in the congress who said that does not sound right. i not think any american would want the president of the united states to fail.

within 24 hours after rush limbaugh got on the air, announcing that, he apologized. i do not underestimate the power of some of these outlets, but we have to counter them by trng to get the best information we can out there. >> your style is traditional washington gentleman's to. what i know this is when you guys get lied about by your opposition, when they lie about the president, when they lie , you members of congress a guys do not come out and say you have lied and prove the facts. why don't you do that? >> i think we do. one of the concerns americans have around the country is the tone of our politics. i think a lot of that style that you see on the other side, which

i think you accurately describe in termsf the tone -- no doubt there are people who have misrepresented the facts. w, the fact that the matter is i do not think americans appreciate necessarily the total food fight. i believe at the end of the day people will look at the facts and information, but it is our job to get that information out there, and that is what you are going to be seen over the next nine-plus weeks, in every one of these districts, people wil be clearly defining process. we have spent the last 20 months trying to get the economy out of the ditch. now it is time to counter all the misrepresentations out there and present it as a choice. this goes to the point i referenced earlier. republicans would like the

american people to have a collective case of amnesia, and they would like this to be a campaign only about the democrats and how you feel about washington. our point is when you go into that booth, you have choices, and we need to clearly articulate what those different choices are, and we started to lay that out clearly in the last couple weeks today in correcting a lot of the statements john boehner made in ohio. also, just making it clear that the extent that they laid out an agenda, it is one that would take us back to the same failed policies. >> mr. van hollen, this week's sarah palin showed heruscle in the senate republican primary in alaska. what impact do you expect her to have in the general election in the house in november? >> you are already beginning to

see that. esol as i mentioned earlier in in the new use ayou saw york 23, where they came in and endorsed a libertarian, and that is the effect that you are seeing from sarah palin. if you watch these republican primaries closely, there are many instances now where the candidate that represented a more moderate republican has lo to the more extreme right candidate. these are swing districts. they are decided largely by independent vers, and independent voters do not want to return to a bush economic

agenda on steroids. what a lot of these candidates are proposing is exactly that. b. defect you are seeing is one that moves -- the efft you are seeing is one of his people to the right and out of the mainstream. [unintelligible] there are two issues. one is the political energy issue and one is what impact they have on independent voters, ok? what you are seeing is as i said they are driving the debate in the republan primary to the right and moving away from the centrist, sort of moderate, tempered the use of these districts. there is no doubt that there is political energy that will affect turnout. the mistake they are making is concluding by the end of the day you wi not have a strong democratic turnout. it is exactly the mistake they

made in pennsylvania 12. the reason they were claiming they were going to win that election, after the polls closed, all their modeling and assumption said that democrats e not going to turn out. what happened was, when people focus on the choices, focused on the issues, combined with a good ground operation, they did. >> raise your hand and we will go, this german, sick and wrote, right here. >> to drill a little bit on the budget discussn, is there any hesitation among democrats about lettg the bush tax cuts expire in december, given the state of the economy? >> a couple points. what republicans are calling for is a permanent extension of the portionf the bush tax cuts that benefited top 2%, which the

congressional budget office would blow a $680 billion hole in the deficit. john boehner himself indicated that these long-term deficits e going to hm long-term economic growth, and yet that is exactlyhat they are proposing. the decratic position is that we should make sure that we provide tax rief to 90% of the american people, and to the point with respect to the state of the economy, again, it has been proven by the eight years of the bush administration,nd paraclete shown, that those tax cuts for the folks at the very not cause this roaring economic growth because the last day of the economic class of the

bush administration, the economy was in free fall. you need that for long-term job growth is contrary to the history of the bush administration. >> good morning. abc news. i want to ask whether you were concerned about the recent democrat at we have seen that are running away from the leadership of minneapolis in an president obama. >> the democratic leadership in congress have said all along that the job of a member of congress is to represent his or her constituents as best as they are able. they have to reflect the views and values of their constituents. one of the things that makes t democratic caucus different from the republican caucus is we have a spectrum of theological and

philosophical views, and therefore, on any one issue, you'll find people who are voting with the present and voting the same way as the speaker, and on many cases, they will be voting the other way. that is what it means to be an independent memb of congress. the fact that these members of congress are talking to there's constituents about how they vote on particular issues and that they are independent-minded members of congress, is an appropriate thing for them to be doing. they should be laying out their record and talking to their constituents and demonstrating they are doing their job. >> independent writer. corpore profits are very high and so are banking profits, and what is the democratic position to get them to invest in a new capital equipment which will create jobs? on the other hand, the $8,000

subsidy for housing has artificially kept prices up and not stimulated new housing as the new numbers show. could you address this, please? >> on the first point, you are right, there are a lot of businesses, especially the larger businesses, that had greater capital, and the key is to make sure we continue what is a very fragile recovery and do everything we can to accelerate it. that is why it be such a mistake to go backwards. john boehner has recently proposed as i have said, canceling over 60,000 contracts and awards worth an estimated $260 billion. that is a sure way to start moving confidence -- moving the economy back and undermining confidence. what we need to be doing is

passing the legislation that has already passed the house and is now being blocked by republicans in the senate to provide small businesses greater access to credit. the issue raises into larger businesses. smaller businesses are having difficult -- development -- different from which. -- different problems. where trying to increase their access to loans, and keep their operations going and growing. this is why it is so maddening to see the republicans continue to block that in the house. with respect to the housing issue, this economic class whispers of the guided by years on why -- years on wall street

and the games played in the mortgage market. it will take time to get out of this. legislation was successful in helping the housing market at the time when it was most vulnerable. we hope to see a recovery. we went from total freefall to stability, and now very fragile growth. we understand that the growth is fragile, but it would be a huge mistake to do the things that john boehner is proposing. >> i want to follow up, given on it helped the housing situation for a while, is there a chance the leadership would extend credit? >>hat is something, bob, that i think people may look at, we are focused right now primarily on trying to g more capital into the small business community. that is our focus right now, and that is what we want to get done, and we urge our republican

colleagues in the senate to move quickly on that as soon as the senate reconvenes. >> ok, over there, modern health care. >> can we talk about the impact of the health reform law? are you confident this will be an advantage for you in the election? is there a concern that it will hinderou? thoughts on that? >> with respect to the issue, it is another measure that the republicans call to repeal. and i do think when americans are asked the question, you want to repeal a provision that prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against kids, whichs now in effec you want to repeal a provision that says people can stay on their parents' insurance policy until the age 26, a policy that closes the donut hole so that

seniors can afford prescription drugs? the american people and not want to go back on those issues. the health care reform bill represented a shift from eight years in which the health insurance companies called all the shots t a time where more power has been transferred to doctors and consumers. to bring down premiums over time, to get people more affordable choices. now, as you know, this goes back to your earlier questions, there are members of the democratic caucus, who did not support health care reform and many who did. that will be a debate carried on in those districts, depending on particular votes. i would say it is very clear that the american people do not want to go back to a time where insurance companies had all the power during the eight years of

the bush administration. premiums doubled and small buses were facing this increase in premiums, and profits quadruple. now small businesses have tax credits as of today to help provide their employees with health insurance at a time they are struggling. i do not think the american people want to repeal that and start all over from scratch. as we identify issues, we should fix them. i'm glad you raised that because there is an issue that deals with section 1099. mr. john boehner raised this the other day in his speech. it is a provision that requires small businesses to report on payments they made exceeding $600. we had a vote in the house to repeal it. democrats proposed -- proposed repealing that provision. we pay for that by closing down

loopholes. when faced with the decision, do you help small businesses by getting rid of what everyone agrees is an onerous provision or, again, supporting incentives to shift american jobs overseas, they voted to protect those overseas corporate profits. it was interesting to hear john boehner raise that issue, since, to a person, his colleagues voted against the opportunity to repeal 1099. >> a question? >> political report. this is getting to be this season where we will start seeing a lot of ads from the other side, and the committee has reserved at time in over 60 districts so far. how coldblooded are you willing

to be about strategy, and are you open at all over the course ofhe next month to pooling resources from races beyonce bifurcating and allocating them -- from races beyond saving? >> one is cold-blooded in the context of dwing a clear contrast, but you really meant in terms of hot making hard decisions about how we allocate resources. our candidates on the first interpretation of the question, they are out there, they will be showing clear distinctions. the independent expenditure arm of the independence will decide the content of those ads. with respect to how we will make decisions, at the end of the day, we will look at races that

we can win. the dccc cannot create a campaign from scratch and build a totally successful campaign, but we can be the booster rocket that helps a campaign get over the finish line. we will make our decisions primarily on two factors. one looks at the polling data, and the second looks at the organization and the funds available at the campaign so we make a determination about whether or not those campaigns can be successful at the end of the day. >> "the washington post," over there somewhere. >> we have seen a bunch of republican polls out there in the last few weeks. we have not seen the democratic

polls come out. are the polling day you are seeing ruting the republicans' in any way, and why you think, if the republican polls are off, what are they getting wrong in the methodology? >> the polling that i have seen does refute that. it does receipt that you have -- it does not refute the fact that you have a lot of close races, a lot of republicans running away with these races. i believe that the main error in a lot of these polls is assumptions about turnout on the democratic side. it is the same reason, i have to go back to pennsylvania 12, the same reason that republicans were popping the champagne balls after the polls closed in -- the champagne bottles after

the polls closed in pennsylvania 12. the result of your pole will be driven entirely by the assumptions you make. turnout is a difficult thing to gauge, especially in a year like this. we have look at the facts. on the one hand, it is true in poland today, if you try to measure the political energy level, you have got folks on the right who are running out the door but the campaigns have not happened yet. most of the activity will take place in the next nine and a half weeks. that is when the messages will be sharpened and our kames have been doing a whole lot of field work that has been going on on a regular basis for months now, and you are seeing the energy level rapidly rise on the democratic side. in fact, this saturday,

tomorrow, we will have our national day of action. we will lock on over 200,000 doors across the country. withricts75 thousands of volteers each, and if you are listening, you can sign up at dccc.org. getting back to the question, it all depends on these turnout assumptions. i think they have been miscalculating democratic turnout. >> we will come back to decide now. in the back. >> cbs. i am curious about your thoughts rally tomorrow.'s he says it is not going to be political.

>> it is blatantly political. come on. talkingn glenn beck about this election for the last 15 months since the day presidt obama was elected president. you have had a constant tirade against the president, against democratic efforts to get the economy turned around. let's call it what it is. it is a plan to it -- it is a blatant political effort. going back to the earlier questions here, that americans are going to be turned off by the sort of outrageous rhetoric on the right, conspiracy theories, rants. there is certainly an element of the electorate that is charged up by that, but it is a turnoff

to the sensible center, and the people who constitute the keep independent voters in the swing districts. they see that kind of stuff, and they say, we do not want to go there. the policies of the pvious eight years of the bush administration were bad enough. these guys are way off on the right. >> over there? >> pbs. i want to know if you guys have any plans to use president obama or for president clinton to campaign for some of your honorable members? >> i think both will be on the campaign trail. president obama has already been making some stops and run the country. i am sure that schedule will

accelerate and intensify in the next five and a half months. the president understands what is at stake. he does not want to present the republicans with an opportunity to turn back the clocks to the earlier policies. the same wh bill clinton. he has been out there. bill clinton was helping in this pennsylvania 12 special election, the york 20 special election. they are very much out there. >> e they asking to coordinate that in any way? >> our members have been asking, and we will be working with the president and the white house to make the best use of the president's time and a former president's time. >> any questions? >> i have trouble getting my

mind around your optimism here. >> identify yourself. >> bloomberg. how you account for the fact that in florida, a swing state, which will be crucial in his reelection in 2012, the tnout for republicans was almost 50% more than in the democratic primary, which people say is an enthusiasm gap in florida voters? >> you typically see it in primaries. you see higher republican turnout. i could point still whole slew of candidates, members of congress today who, when they had their primaries, there was a lower turnout and republican primaries for the same offices. because people are motivated by different issues, and i think

the choice in november is going to be very different than the choices people are makg in republican primaries. a lot of the activity you are seeing in the republican primaries is driven by the division between the tea party republican candidates and the more mainstream republican candidate. that is driving a whole lot of that turned out activity. you saw that in arizona, too. you had a statewide election, primary on the republican side. you had some big races that are again, i go back to the most recent test case.

we did have a big senate primary. if you look at the turnout numbers, that turned out in pennsylvania 12 was much higher for democrats and republicans, because that particular campaign, in terms of the message campaign and the ground operation, helped bring out democratic vote. i can go back to the most recent data point we have. >> where are some of these red

to blue districts you are talking about? >> we will have to bring them to their attention. there are a number of congressional districts where you have a high democratic rformances that voted overwhelmingly for president obama. you have delaware open seat, illinois 810, you have louisiana, a democratic seat, where the incumbent was elected three weeks after the national election because of scheduling in louisiana elections. you have a white, where in the special election we just saw the democratic combined got 60% of the vote, but because of a special election rule they split the vote. then you have a lot of other

districts where you have strong candidates. in many cases they have outraised the republican incumbents. they have strong arguments to be made, and the full list of those red-to-blue candid this can be dccc website. there is a narrower band of territory to compete on offense, but we are still doing it and made a calculated decision to do whatever we could on that front. hello there. in your opinion, in the media,

saying that the the decrats will lose house seats, is there anything to that? >> you have a lot of folks, a lot of them inside washington, if you go around most of the country, people are going about their daily lives trying to make ends meet. i can tell you that they are not that focused right now on all the ins and outs of the horserace inashington. my sense is that you have a lot of chatter going on. it has been a fact from the beginning that this was going to be a tough election for the democrats. i think you'll find , looking at

historical cycles, we have one close to 100% of seats. all of that being said, i am confident the american people will not want to turnack. you have a lot of republican candidates. i am confident the democrats will take a majority. i think that the more voters focus on those choices and the re that they listen to john boehner and what the republicans id they would do, to the extent people think it is a real possibility that could happen, then they will be even more motivated to come out because the american people do not want to go back. if i could say one word about the third party ads, there are a

lot of groups on the right spending a lot of money to influence voters and influence the elections. they are on the air right now. our message to voters is they were. tried to takehe time to find out or at least ask yourself who is running ads and paying for them. one of the reasons democrats want the disclose act was because we wanted voters to know who is paying for the ads. our republican colleagues voted to keep people in the dark. and right now as a result of the sueme court decision, foreign- controlled corporations can secretly spend as much money as they want in these elections and nobody would know. they are not looking after

american interests. they are looking after whatever interest they may have. it is just common sense that the american people have a right to know who is paying for this advertising. one of the group's spending a lot is americans for prosperity. it is a group created by david koch. it so happens that his subsidiaries not long ago received the and outsourcing toward from a group that soucers.es great out sorcerer' but the message is americans need to understand the reasons

out-of-state groups are standing -- spending millions is because they have an economic interest in supporting in this case the republican opponent. americans for prosperity is not interested in american prosperity. they are interested in the prosperity of corporations and individuals who benefited greatly from the bush ecomic agenda. we believe the voters need to ask themselves tt question and calling upon these groups that are on the air to tell them who is paying for these ads, why are they running these ads supporting these republican candidates? these groups are not interesd in charity. they are interested in repuican candidates who will support their economic special interests. >> i think we have no more questions.

is there anything else you would like to add? >> thank you all for being here. it looks like everyone -- the congress will reconvene soon. having spoken with our members around the country, who are actively engaged every day with their constituents, that they are encouraged by the fact that americans are an optimistic people. one thing americans always want to do is move forward. americans do not want to go back and they don't wa to go back to the kind of policies that got us into the deepest trouble to begin with. thanks very much. thanks for having me. announcement.e adults mea join us on monday at 10:00 for

two federal judge is discussing personal threats and security concerns. randall frye, president of the association of administrative law judges and who we have the president of the national association of immigration judges and other judgewill participate in this important event. congressman van hollen, thanks very much. we are adjourned. >> thank you very much. h[captioning performeby national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010]

>> the prospects of it coming up in the congress are very small. when it comes to these issues, we are looking at making sure we do not blow a $680 million hole. at the same time, we want to extend the bush tax cuts. what is unfortunate is the republicans have taken the position that unless you have a permanent extension of that portion of the bush tax cuts, the top 2%, where if you know an

overwhelming number of people in that category -- that is what is currently holding up. >> on the issue, it is not just the republicans that think it is a bad idea to roll back, but a lot of democrats who want to extend it for one year. could they sustain the president's position? >> they are calling for a permanent one. unless you have a permanent extension, you can have other variations of what you do now. it is important. they want continued relief for middle income americans.

>> the president is saying, let's repeal these. could you have passed that position in the past? >> i believe we could. because of all of the reasons we have talked about. people are nervous about the long-term economic stability and the foundation. it has been proven by history. if that were a prescription for economic growth in jobs, -- grex tax cuts for a year? >> democrats want to extend

long-term middle-class tax cuts. the republicans say do not do that unless you permanently extend tax cuts for the top 2%. >> there are seats that are very much in play. there are seats that theoretically are in place. i do not know where he is measuring or drawing his cut off. >> here is the way we do our math. we have some of the democratic open seats.

so you look at that mix. we do not have that kind of number, but it is how you draw the line. that is an inside washington ankle. we do not have that kind of number. that. >> which seed concerns you the most of the three competitive races in iiana? >> we are taking none of those racefor granted. they are all going to be competitive. at the end of the day the democratic candidates will win. he has been through this and has

d.tt-testee teste jowell donnelly is ready. and [inaudible] we arenvolved in all of those three seats. thank you all very much.

[unintelligible] >> they look at what happened in the bush years. in terms of -- there are different variations possible. the reason this position is important is because what you do

has to get out of the senate. their position as even if he were to do a permanent extension and only a one-year extension of bush tax cuts, they want permanent ones. that is why it is important. i note the senate is going to try along with the president. >> what about the house? >> it has to get through.

that is to be determined. >> you have the worst job. >> let me ask you about a most recent common in "the new york times". he said it is time to admit that what we have now is not a recovery. do you agree that is what we have? >> i would say it is a very fragile recovery. i would agree with him that we need to do more. that is why we need to get this small business lending bill out there. that is why it is so important

to pass this legislation. >> with unemployment still somewhat high, do you think the stimulus has not done what it was said to be doing by the president and congress? >> it has gotten us out of a total freefall. they have indicated that between 1.3 million jobs out there would not be out there. we wish there had been more job creation. that is a sign that the economy is in far worse shape than we realize. it takes time to dig out of the whole. that is why we have to keep doing everything we can. >> as far as changing the strategy, assessing the stimulus, is that possible? >> our focus right now is on

getting the small business past. it would be a big help. our republican colleagues would listen to them. >> should democrats maintain a majority in the elections? >> there are a number of things. it calls for a cut below the president's proposal for non security discretionary freeze. i think you will see a tightening in the years ahead. , making sure we reduce the deficit. we saw that operation recently. it creates a mechanism.

people are waiting to see what the commission has with respect to longer-term. >> what kind of tightening do you mean? the chairman and committee are going for all of the programs line by line. our legislation cut hundreds of billions of dollars in previously approved projects in prior years. the authorization was there, but the the money was not spent. . >> hello. >> nice to see you. it was terrific.

♪ [unintelligible] >> thank you very much. >> this morning on c-span, next is "washington journal" live with your phone calls. then there will be fox new